Zefat Academic College is a rapidly growing independent public institution of higher education in the Upper Galilee region of Israel, with 2,600 students enrolled in baccalaureate programs in Law, Health Sciences, the Humanities and Social Sciences. The College offers a 21st century academic gateway for aspiring students, with deep roots in the region

In fact, the College is a reality changer in one of the poorest regions in Israel. While we operate in a city with 40% ultra-orthodox residents, we do attract a highly diverse and multi-cultural student body. This diversity includes students who are Jewish secular, religious and ultra-orthodox, as well as new immigrants from the former USSR and Ethiopia together with Muslims, Druze, Christians and Circassians. The College is proud to be named, the most culturally diverse public institution of higher education in Israel

It is difficult to find a better definition that would describe Zefat Academic College than a miracle. In our Rosh Hashanah Newsletter we would like to share with you portions of this miracle, a dream and its realization

While I am sure you will find the stories in this Newsletter inspiring, they cannot replace visiting our campus and experiencing our unique energy and development first hand. I invite all of you to visit our College, meet our students, see our projects as they progress and witness the miracle

In the near future we will inaugurate our new website. Information about it will be available in our January Newsletter. If you wish to learn more about Zefat Academic College and inquire about partnerships with the College, please do not hesitate to write our Vice President of Development, Dr. Amnon Leshem: AmnonL@Zefat.ac.il

On behalf of our entire college community, I wish you and yours a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year

!Hag Sameach

Professor Haim Breitbart
President

Revolutionizing Medical Practice in Israel's Northern Periphery

Israel's advanced health care education and technologies are concentrated in the urban center of Israel. The rural northern periphery of the country, home to a diverse set of communities with a population of over one million residents, is characterized by geographic isolation and a severe shortage of high quality health care professionals and advanced technology. As a result, residents of the northern periphery lack access to quality health care and suffer from a higher percentage of chronic diseases, shorter life expectancy and a higher child death rate...

As the number of students and courses offered at the Zefat Academic College grows, the need for more space is paramount. With help from some of our generous donors including the Legacy Heritage fund, JNF, The Rashi Foundation and UJIA-UK, The College has acquired the historic Beit Bussel area and building is now underway to create a new complex on the main campus, with building planned to be completed in 2020...

In recent years there has been a significant drop in the number of science and technology students in Israeli high schools and a decline in their achievements in national and international examinations. In the northern periphery of Israel, there is a much more dramatic need to increase access to higher education among students, with an emphasis on encouraging them to choose the fields of science and technology. Unfortunately, there is a noticeable lack of science teachers and appropriately equipped labs in the northern periphery, which leads to a constantly growing gap between the center of the country and the periphery...

Israeli society is a diverse society of 8.5 million citizens. Aspects of social cohesion are measurably low when compared with the great majority of OECD countries. Demographics and cultural processes have reshaped Israeli society in decades from a society consisting of a clear majority and minority, to a society constituting four sectors, or central 'tribes,' close to each other in size: secular; national-religious and ultra-Orthodox Jews together with Arabs...

A Community of Student Ambassadors in the Geographic and Social Periphery

Zefat College is located on the outskirts of the city of Zefat. The city has a population of 36,000, 40% of whom belong to different streams of the ultra-Orthodox sector. According to the Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the city is in cluster 2 of the socio-economic index, which places it at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. The average wage in Zefat is about two-thirds of the wage in the center of Israel, and about 35% of the families living in the city are registered with the National Insurance Institute...